


Day 25: Shockwave

by GemmaRose



Series: Lost Light Fest 2019 [14]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Co-workers, Contingency Plans, Functionist Universe (Transformers), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 17:44:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21165602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: If Mesothulas goes down, Prowl will go with him. If Prowl goes down, Shockwave's outliers will be in danger. Shockwave cannot allow that to happen.





	Day 25: Shockwave

Shockwave made a point of staying in the good graces of his fellow scientists at the Proximax research facility. Being well-liked had only ever served him well, and in a place like Proximax where scientists so often cracked under the pressure and were deemed surplus to requirements it certainly didn’t hurt to be known as a friendly mech. An amicable acquaintance was more likely to overlook his eccentricities than a mech with whom he had a stiff, work-only relationship, and with so many mechs relying on him he could not afford to be doubted by the council.

“Good morning.” he greeted a few of his colleagues as he entered the fuel hall, exchanging polite smiles and cordial nods on his way to the energon dispensary. He had one in his lab as well, of course, and his assistants fuelled together from it, but he spent all day with them and only saw most of the facility’s other scientists during the morning fuelling period.

“Good morning, Shockwave.” said Mesothulas from off to his side as he slid a cube under the dispenser to retrieve his ration, and when Shockwave turned to return the greeting he was quite glad he’d not picked the cube up before doing so. Mesothulas was taller than he’d been the last time he showed his face in the general fuel hall, every single thing about his frame rendered utterly unrecognisable. No, wait, he did still have the same colours more or less, but that hardly mattered when the mech who’d formerly been a two-wheeler now appeared to have taken on a _primitive_ alt-mode.

“Mesothulas.” he affected a laugh, fluttering his wings to disguise the tension in them. “You look different today.”

“It’s Terarantulas now, actually.” Terarantulas corrected him, and when Shockwave checked the mech’s data-tags his designation had, in fact, been altered.

“How did you convince the Council to let you change your alt?” he asked, flicking his wings in curiosity as he picked up his cube.

“I’m already alt-mode exempt, it’s not like they care.” Terarantulas waved a hand dismissively, and Shockwave’s smile felt brittle on his face. It always hurt to see a friend start to crack, but with Terarantulas Shockwave felt his spark casing clench in terror at the thought of the mech being removed from the facility. His guard was too involved with him, would possibly choose to be offlined with his scientist rather than simply keep his helm down and take another new assignment, and normally that wouldn’t be a problem for anyone. But normally, guards weren’t running covert intelligence operations through the guards of the facility and assistants of other scientists. Too many of Shockwave’s outliers were entangled with Prowl; Primus, Soundwave had just gone and _volunteered_ himself and his cassettes for it the other mega-cycle.

“Better to beg forgiveness, eh?” he managed, picking up his cube and gripping it tight to hide the tremble of his fingers.

“Mmm, something like that.” Terarantulas’s new kibble wiggled, emoting something carefully masked from his field, and Shockwave cursed internally as he realized he would have to relearn his colleague’s frame language all over again. “I’ll send them the datawork when I can come up with a properly scientific reason.”

“You didn’t have a reason?” Shockwave raised an optic ridge, letting skepticism colour his field as he followed Terarantulas back a table.

“Oh I had one.” Terarantulas smiled with his optics, kibble wiggling again. Shockwave was glad of the table between them, those extra legs looked far too organic for his liking. “Just not one the Council would accept.”

“To see if you could?” Shockwave guessed, and Mesothulas nodded with a pleased hum.

“Sparks are such an understudied subject matter. I was forged a grounder, my spark should only have accepted a new alt-mode if it was similar to my original one. And yet.” he gestured at himself, and Shockwave nodded politely. There was a good reason spark study had gone underfunded in the past few millennia. The Council didn’t want to risk science challenging their decree that each spark was designed for a singular purpose. Something that Terarantulas’s very existence flew in the very face of, now.

“What other studies have you done on the spark?” he asked politely, already formulating a plan of escape for his outliers should the Council come for Terarantulas. He was too high-profile, but the mechs under his protection could feasibly run off and join the AVL. Damus had snuck out to enough meetings already he could get the rest of them in safely.

“I’ve largely been focusing on the differences between forged and fabricated sparks. It’s quite fascinating, really. There’s a measurable difference in their core energy signatures, and fabricated sparks have much less variation to their core signatures than forged ones do. What I would give to speak to the mech who pioneered cold construction.” Mesothulas sighed wistfully, and Shockwave nodded.

“It sounds like you’ve quite the topic to study.” he said, finishing the last of his fuel in one big gulp. “I’ll not keep you any longer.”

“You must tell me about your latest projects sometime.” Mesothulas cajoled, and Shockwave gave a wafer-thin smile.

“Perhaps another morning.” he stood, and avoided making optic contact with anyone as he strode from the room, depositing his cube in the rubbish bin on the way out. ::Soundwave, exactly how soon did Prowl want to meet with you?:: he commed his assistant as he strode through the halls of the facility, letting his pedes carry him on motor memory.

::Meeting: scheduled for third cycle of off-shift tomorrow.:: Soundwave pined back, subglyphs curious but not quite questioning.

::Make sure he knows to keep a close optic on Mesothulas. Primus knows the mech needs it.::

::Understood.:: Soundwave replied, and Shockwave sighed as he turned into the hall where his laboratory was located. The twins were bad enough, but Mesothulas was playing with fire, outright daring the Council to turn on him and strip him of all protections. And if Prowl went down with him, Shockwave had a sneaking suspicion that half of this facility would be getting reformatted. It had happened to Prowl once already, after that unfortunate incident with the mnemosurgeon, and Shockwave had no desire to see it happen to any of his mechs. Which was, of course, assuming the Council didn’t use their involvement with Prowl as an excuse to have them taken from him and made into experiments and test subjects.

He could not allow that to happen. He _would not_ allow that to happen. Having so many of his mechs embroiled with Prowl put them in danger, yes, but it also meant he could get a smidgen of warning. It would have to be enough. He would make sure it was enough.


End file.
